Pop Star Rita Ora Opens up About Her Struggle with Body Confidence on Her Journey to the Top

One staggering heel in front of the other, Rita Ora, 22, is working the room as if no one else is in it. Moments from starring in her first Teen Vogue shoot, she's sauntering around the studio like a little girl playing dress-up in her "mum's" closet, testing out the white platform booties that Vogue stylist Elissa Santisi picked with the edgy Brit beauty in mind. "They're Stella," Rita says casually. She's referring, of course, to lauded designer Stella McCartney, who happened to catch the pic Rita Instagrammed of herself on set in the coveted chunky stunners. Suddenly, Rita's phone lights up with a text. It's Stella, with four gasp-inducing words: "Take them. They're yours!"

But the star's life wasn't always this charmed. Before the endorsement from Jay-Z, the styling squad, and the dizzying swarm of paparazzi, there was war-torn Kosovo, where Rita was born, and then London, where she lived as an outsider raised by immigrant parents who did everything they could to help her singing dream come true. Fast-forward to 2013 and Rita has taken the music world by storm with a platinum U.K. debut album and two Brit Award nominations this year alone. Her personal style seems to have the entire fashion world buzzing, too: She's the new face of Material Girl, Madonna and her daughter Lourdes's clothing line, and she's even rumored to be Karl Lagerfeld's new muse. An eclectic mix of old Hollywood glamour and hip-hop street culture, her look embodies the cool irreverence of punk-rock spirit that Brits do best.

When we sit down to chat on a downtown New York City deck, Rita's peroxide-blonde hair is backlit by the sun setting over the Hudson River in the distance. Her Fendi-inspired faux hawk has been carefully dismantled. She's even wiped off her signature Marilyn-meets-Gwen red lipstick, exposing a rarely seen, pared-down beauty. I find her virtually flawless—but the breakout star quickly reveals that she didn't always feel that way. "There was a point in school when I was, like, thirteen, that I didn't feel comfortable at all," she admits.

"I matured more quickly than the other girls; I had bigger breasts and a bigger bum—and I hated it. I would get extra-tight leotards for my dance classes [to flatten me] because I was really ashamed of my body." Stars like Beyoncé helped her embrace her curves. "At one point, I just woke up, like, 'I love my boobs, I love my skin, I love myself. And I'm going to get a leotard that actually fits because I can't breathe!' " she laughs.

Story edited for TeenVogue.com. See photos from Rita's photo shoot, then pick up the complete interview with Rita Ora in the August issue of Teen Vogue_, on newsstands July 2._